Manchester United must buy Carlos Tevez at the end of the season if they want to keep the Argentine striker.

The Sun says United will not be able to renew their loan deal with Tevez.

In fact, the only way the Premier League champions can keep the 25-year-old Argie striker after this season is to buy him - and the asking price is £32million.

Tev is allowed to play for the Red Devils because he signed a two-year loan deal before new Premier League rules came into force last June.

Those regulations forbid similar loan arrangements, where players are owned by third parties and not a club. Tevez is still owned by agent Kia Joorabchian.

And a Premier League spokesman explained: "He would not be eligible to play under the new rules on third-party ownership we introduced in June.

"But the rules are not applied retrospectively so he can play for United under his two-year loan arrangement from 2007."